Collapsible canopies for pick-up trucks typically utilize a series of ribs which transverse the cargo bay and slide along tracks mounted to the sides of the truck. A flexible cover of canvas or the like is connected to each rib, and will drape between the ribs as the canopy is longitudinally collapsed.
Although such canopies have made it simpler and easier to load and unload the truck's cargo bay, they still suffer several deficiencies. Unless a person is stationed along each side of the canopy to simultaneously pull the ribs along the track, each rib will tend to find in the track as one leg or the other lags behind and deviatres from tis perpendicular orientation to its track. Due to the lower silhouette of such canopies or because the truck may be loaded it is not feasible to rely on moving the ribs from inside the truck by pushing or pulling on their center portions.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,787 to C. Feather, discloses a cable and pulley system which is designed to solve this problem. As such it represents an advance in the art. In Feather, single pulleys are mounted at each rear corner of the pick-up's cargo bay and double-grooved pulleys are mounted at the front corners. The rear rib is affixed to an endless cable which loops about the pulleys. The deficiencies of pulleys and cables located adjacent to a cargo are well known. Cables eventually stretch, both cables and pulleys are in frictional contact and, if exposed, they are easily fouled and will readily collect dirt and grime.
In addition, as disclosed in the specificaiton, the Feather canopy is not operably removable from the truck. To make it operably removable, either the cable system has to be left on the truck or removed along with a rigid "U"-shaped frame of some sort, a task not easily accomplished by one person. Also, the draping of material between the ribs of the canopy, when collapsing the structure, not only reduces the extent to which the canopy can be collapsed, but also blocks the view of the driver through the rear view mirror.